S7 scratch building

[magmouse]

Mike - if no-one beats me to it, I can see if I can identify the GWR van when I am back home next week. Regarding the down-sizing, I know the feeling - I hate throwing anything away that might be of use to someone. If you were able to put a list together, quite a lot might find a new home for the price of postage and packing, if that's how you wanted to do it.

 

Nick.

[airnimal]

I don't know how to start a new thread because I wanted to dispose of 50 years of collecting old model and prototype railwailway magazines. I thought it might reach a new audience if I put them in a new category. But being useless with technology I can't find the necessary buttons to push to start a new thread.

We hope to move house to a smaller place and I am under pressure to down size. Being realistic it is the right things because they have been in the loft for a very long time unseen by anyone. I am happy to give them to anyone able to collect them from Stockport. 

Some of them are a bit musty having been locked away for so long but they are free to anyone with more time and energy than I have. I am sure that they would draw a lot of attention at a car boot sale 

I was just going to Tesco to stock up on empty boxes to put them in because the boxes that they were in are falling apart. Just as i was going out the door MRJ No 305 fell through the letterbox. 

[Caley Jim]

6 hours ago, airnimal said:

I don't know how to start a new thread because I wanted to dispose of 50 years of collecting old model and prototype railwailway magazines.

Mike, There's a section here on RMWeb where you could advertise them.  There's a dark blue 'Start new topic' button near the top of the page on the right.  Click on that and go from there.

 

HTH

 

Jim

[Schooner]

Evening Mike, unable to offer them a home for them myself it's still sad to see that your magasines are for the recycling.

 

However, you mentioned some drawings...any more info on these?

[hayfield]

On 08/07/2024 at 12:39, airnimal said:

I don't know how to start a new thread because I wanted to dispose of 50 years of collecting old model and prototype railwailway magazines. I thought it might reach a new audience if I put them in a new category. But being useless with technology I can't find the necessary buttons to push to start a new thread.

We hope to move house to a smaller place and I am under pressure to down size. Being realistic it is the right things because they have been in the loft for a very long time unseen by anyone. I am happy to give them to anyone able to collect them from Stockport. 

Some of them are a bit musty having been locked away for so long but they are free to anyone with more time and energy than I have. I am sure that they would draw a lot of attention at a car boot sale 

I was just going to Tesco to stock up on empty boxes to put them in because the boxes that they were in are falling apart. Just as i was going out the door MRJ No 305 fell through the letterbox. 

 

 

10 years ago I had to do the same, but unlike 30 years ago (I sold my Model Railway Constructor mags to a retail shop) The Railway Modelers were un wanted

 

I kept all the plans and a few articles, I sold most of the early 7mm scale plans in lots of 3 or 4 and they fetched reasonable sums, but more importantly helped out other modelers. 

 

Sadly old mags have little value, strangely larger scale plans and plans of minor companies have a market, whether its worth the effort is dependent on your own values 

[Andy Hayter]

The problem with old magazines is that they take up a lot of room.  Room that many do not have.  I am lucky but with over 8000 items in the library - not all, but mostly magazines, even I am running out of room and am in process of a big reorganisation.  

 

Old magazines have lots of valuable drawings plus prototype articles written by people who actually remember and saw the subject of the article.  On the other hand the articles on layouts, new releases etc. are really only of nostalgia benefit.  

[Poggy1165]

In one of Eddie Johnson's books, there is a photo of one of those NSR milk vans in a passenger train (headed by an 05 2-8-0!) at Gorton and Openshaw, GCR. I have often wondered whether it was going to Macclesfield via the GC and NS Joint line or whether it was exchanged with the LNWR at London Road and is off to some locus to the east of Manchester. No knowing of course, but it does show that such a vehicle could appear at quite an unexpected place.

[airnimal]

I can report that over 50 years of railway magazines have gone to a new home. 16 large boxes filled the gentlemans large boot of his Honda.

Life has been very hectic of the last week visiting estate agents and solicitors and clearing out lots of stuff that we are not taking with us. Filling the forms in from the solicitors took the best part of an afternoon because there was so many. I know we haven't done any of this for such a long time but it has come of a bit of a shock as to how much has changed since we last bought a house. 

I will have to sort out the drawings I have gathered as well as my collection of books because we won't have the available space where we are going. But again like the magazines,  railway books are now everywhere and very few people want them. 

[hayfield]

3 hours ago, airnimal said:

I can report that over 50 years of railway magazines have gone to a new home. 16 large boxes filled the gentlemans large boot of his Honda.

Life has been very hectic of the last week visiting estate agents and solicitors and clearing out lots of stuff that we are not taking with us. Filling the forms in from the solicitors took the best part of an afternoon because there was so many. I know we haven't done any of this for such a long time but it has come of a bit of a shock as to how much has changed since we last bought a house. 

I will have to sort out the drawings I have gathered as well as my collection of books because we won't have the available space where we are going. But again like the magazines,  railway books are now everywhere and very few people want them. 

 

Mike

 

Well done for finding a home, I had shelves of them prior to our house move, most I only read once and the number of times over 30 years in the last house (50+ years of collecting) I guess I only ever searched  for items a dozen times

 

Have I missed them over the past 8 years, the answer is no

 

As for books, I guess most have little. But some still change hands for reasonable money.

 

We stayed in our last house for 28 years, moving 8 years ago, whilst there was more paperwork it was not too bad. roll on 4/5 years both my sister and in-laws moved within months of each other. The paperwork in both cases was awful, extra awful with the conveyancing firm. Most of the work seems to be to protect the legal firms, putting onus on both buyers and sellers for things I thought solicitors did. Especially those catch all forms, asking me questions relating to flats when we were both buying and selling houses. 

 

Turn the clock back 50 years ago, I was a cheeky 23 year old, the solicitor asked me if I had read the contract, I said no thats what I am paying you for !!!  A car mechanic never asks you to read the service manual. I have always used solicitors for our 4 house purchases (and 3 sales) and always had good service (we used the same firm) Every time I have found friends or customers who used conveyancing firms, there always seemed to be issues/hiccups.   

 

Good luck with your move and lets hope there will be room for a layout

[CKPR]

When we moved house 8 years ago, I disposed of 100s of model railway mags [kept the complete run of MRJ !] but then replaced some of them with bound editions  of MRN/MR for 1968-1981 and RM from particularly good years e.g.1965-1967 & 1975-1976. Like everyone has suggested, I removed a lot of plans from the junked magazines but many of these have been rendered redundant by more recent ones from the CRA, etc.

[Dave Hunt]

Mike, when I was getting rid of Bob Essery's books, Paul Karau put me on to a chap who runs British Railways Books based in Abergavenny who took quite a lot of them and was happy to travel to pick them up. His name is G. Johnson and he is a very pleasant chap so it may be worth contacting him. He advertises in MRJ and has a web site.

 

Dave

[CKPR]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Mike, when I was getting rid of Bob Essery's books, Paul Karau put me on to a chap who runs British Railways Books based in Abergavenny who took quite a lot of them and was happy to travel to pick them up. His name is G. Johnson and he is a very pleasant chap so it may be worth contacting him. He advertises in MRJ and has a web site.

 

Dave

...the bound MRNs,etc I purchased from Bill Hudson's bookshop were Bob Essery's.

[Dave Hunt]

Just now, CKPR said:

...the bound MRNs,etc I purchased from Bill Hudson's bookshop were Bob Essery's.

 

Yes, that was another outlet.

 

Dave

[airnimal]

Thanks to everyone for all the input.  I have not decided yet on the railway books because until we move house I am unsure on my allotted space from the boss. 

 

Unable to progress much while we wait for the solicitors to move forward,  I decided that I will do something to calm my nerves by building another simple wagon. This will be a NSR 3 plank open from a drawing and photographs in the NSR wagon book by G.F. Chadwick. 

Because my mind is not totally focused on what I am doing I have made a mistake when I fuxed the wheels in. I have made the basic frames and floor before getting my wheelbase jigs out and fixing the wheels in at 9' WB. Looking at the drawing I was horrified to find it should be 9'7.

Now I could start again or look for an alternative.  I do have a copy of the wagon stock book and there are a couple of wagons with the 9'WB.  The Chadwick book has a few errors and omissions so I am going to proceed with this build. And lets face the NSR has been extinct for 101 years now so there is little chance that anyone is still alive who was there when these wagons were built. 

[hayfield]

12 hours ago, airnimal said:

Thanks to everyone for all the input.  I have not decided yet on the railway books because until we move house I am unsure on my allotted space from the boss. 

 

Unable to progress much while we wait for the solicitors to move forward,  I decided that I will do something to calm my nerves by building another simple wagon. This will be a NSR 3 plank open from a drawing and photographs in the NSR wagon book by G.F. Chadwick. 

Because my mind is not totally focused on what I am doing I have made a mistake when I fuxed the wheels in. I have made the basic frames and floor before getting my wheelbase jigs out and fixing the wheels in at 9' WB. Looking at the drawing I was horrified to find it should be 9'7.

Now I could start again or look for an alternative.  I do have a copy of the wagon stock book and there are a couple of wagons with the 9'WB.  The Chadwick book has a few errors and omissions so I am going to proceed with this build. And lets face the NSR has been extinct for 101 years now so there is little chance that anyone is still alive who was there when these wagons were built. 

 

Railway modelling must be one of the best methods of self therapy. At Railex there was a stand encouraging us older folk to take up building models simply for our brains health, keeping it (our brain) active has many health benefits, elevating stress is one

 

Thank you for sharing your builds 

[airnimal]

I feel better for doing a little modelling, it does take the stress away from the house sale. 

The body is quite straightforward and didn't take long to make. The buffers have 3 bolts holding them on but I don't know that they are available from the trade. So I will use some of my own cast brass ones and drill the fixing holes in them using a small drilling jig.  3 Masterclub. 9mm bolts were superglued in them to complete.  

I may do a little more before I have to go and clear some of the rubbish out of the garden shed. 

[hayfield]

Mike

 

You make it look so effortless and achievable, a rare skill

Edited July 23 by hayfield

[airnimal]

hayfield,

I think we all have different skills in one way our another. Is cutting out bits of plastic a skill ? 

It is just a hobby that gives me pleasure and over the years I have developed my own methods of doing things to make models that have a consistent standard.  I do like using jigs to speed up construction as well as screwing parts together to make painting simple.  On this build I filed all the end stanchions together so that the tops have all got the same angle rather than doing them individually.  I used a jig to drill the holes in the buffer bodies as well as a jig to space the end stanchions.  All these little jigs are pretty simple to make and save such a lots of time when multiple parts are required.  

[airnimal]

Today I should have done some clearing out instead I went into the workshop.  Big mistake ! 

Everything I touched went wrong. I tried adding details to one end of this wagon but I struggled again with accuracy especially drilling holes for the bolts to go in. Then I superglued my fingers together and the carpet monster ate one of the coupling hooks. This looks like it could be a long job.

[Dave Hunt]

Looks like another of your superb creations in the making Mike.

 

Dave

[Mikkel]

 

16 hours ago, airnimal said:

Everything I touched went wrong.

 

Those are the days when you wonder "why am I doing this". Experience teaches us that it will be OK later. The problem is that we forget! 🙂

 

The wagon looks superb though.

 

[Johnson044]

Those bolt holes all look pretty accurate to me!

[airnimal]

I have found over time that when marking out for the holes to take the bolts I have to turn the wagon upside down and look at it from every angle.  Holding the wagon at eye level and turning it around usually shows where I have got it wrong and try to adjust it before drilling. I don't always get it right, so I then have to plug the hole with plastic rod and start again. 

 

I suppose trying to do the best we can in our hobby is like an extension of our working life. 

I earned a living but never achieved any great success in my working environment, so trying to do the best in my hobby in some ways compensate myself for my lack of achievement in others areas of my life. Having grown up admiring the high quality of models at places like the Manchester model exhibition at Christmas time just spurred me on to  try my best I could. 

I have included a couple of photographs of models built by John Petcher who made my LNWR coaches which I think speak for themselves.  John was a full time professional modeller who turn out IMHO some of the best models ever made. I have been fortunate enough to be custodian of some of these coaches to enjoy in my lifetime and to spur me on to try harder in my own efforts.  

John started out build wagons before going on to his famous coaches but he also scratch some amazing locos as well. I have never been fortunate enough to own any of his locomotives because of the high prices that they command. 

[CKPR]

Your wagons are every bit the equal of those marvellous LNWR coaches.

[Johnson044]

17 hours ago, CKPR said:

Your wagons are every bit the equal of those marvellous LNWR coaches.

I totally agree!